New commissioner candidate emerges for general election

Kerry Moe to challenge Tom Mathers for District 3 in November

Craig resident Kerry Moe, 48, has announced she will run as a write-in candidate for the Moffat County Commission in November’s general election.

Moe, a Republican, filed her candidate petition Monday afternoon for the District 3 commission seat currently held by Tom Mathers.

Moe’s husband, Frank, ran unsuccessfully for the same seat in the Aug. 10 Republican primary election against Mathers.

Mathers won by 49 votes in the primary. He received 1,197 votes, or 51.04 percent, while Frank Moe received 1,148 votes, or 48.96 percent.

Kerry is the co-owner and manager of Best Western Deer Park Inn & Suites, and has lived in Craig for 22 years.

She said she is unsure of her chances of winning in the general election, but giving voters a choice is important to her.

“I think that is very important for this country, whatever election it may be or whoever it may be,” she said. “I think there should always be a choice, and an educated choice, at that.”

Kerry said she wanted to continue the message her husband raised during his campaign leading to the Republican primary.

“So many people were endorsing what (Frank) stood for in the primary, which is what they want, he was continuing their message … and I felt that needed to continue,” she said.

Kerry decided to run because she wanted to carry “the voices of the community,” she said.

“I can feel some negatives possibly for me personally, but I can handle that,” she said. “But, I couldn’t come up with any negatives for Moffat County to have a choice, and I felt that was my way of giving back.”

Kerry said a few issues she is concerned about are energy, jobs and economic development, among others.

“I guess the issues to me that seemed to be important were the issues that I was hearing the community speak to (Frank) about and what their concerns were, namely fighting for our energy jobs and economic development,” she said.

Improving communication with lawmakers in Denver and the next governor is another goal Kerry said she wanted to work toward.

“We need to do a little more homework and work with some people a little bit better and communicate a little bit better so that we can make our voices heard from this community to the Front Range, so that if they are making decisions that affect us … hopefully they won’t be detrimental to our area, like they have been in the past,” she said.

Despite being married to a former candidate, Kerry said, “I am my own person,” and her campaign will differ from Frank’s.

Mathers said he was surprised to hear Kerry announced she would run in the election, but felt he was “absolutely” the better candidate.

Mathers said “this is not the time for change” in the county commission because of the bad economy.

“I just look forward to the upcoming election, and I’ll be glad when this is all over,” he said. “I thought this time here would be enough, but apparently not.”

Kerry is the third Moffat County resident to announce a write-in candidacy. She joins Jennifer Riley, who is running for county assessor, and Tami Barnes, who is running for county commission District 2.

Each of the three is attempting to make county history.

Moffat County Elections Supervisor Stephanie Beckett said no write-in candidate has ever won an election in Moffat County.

Comments

" When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles. They call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle."

Fact: This either reminds me of Moffat County politics this year, ( beetle battle, with paddles, of course ), or makes as much since as Jenny and Mrs. Moe running write in campaigns!!!
( no sense!!)

Hey, if we can think of Just one more Fact, it could be all three, and we could have a trifecta!!!! We win, Yea~!!!

I am glad to see Kerry running as it does give us another choice. The arrogance displayed by Tom Mathers' response to having competition proves to me that he is not someone that I want representing me. I realize that the economy is bad everywhere and that if things are so bad here as well, then it is time for a change. Time to let someone new who is not content with the status quo step in. Good luck Kerry!! One last comment to justthefacts I have read your comment numerous times to try to make sense of it and all I can say is HUH??? (Of course maybe that is your point)

Kerry who? When has she ever been involved in anything in Moffat County? Is she going to start attending meetings she's never before been interested in like her husband did?
Talk about sore losers. Frank didn't say a single thing after the election to show he's a good sport. He didn't even thank his supporters.
The voters did have a choice and they didn't choose Frank. The Moe's must really need this job to make up for the money they're spending on campaigns.
Good luck if she's spreading the same stuttering message her husband did - that he has no clue how politics work and wouldn't do anything different except spend taxpayer money on trips to Denver and Washington D.C. Moffat County has been there before and nearly went broke because of it.
Let sleeping dogs lie, Moes, and put your money to better use.

Over the the past five years, I have served on the board that test the Moffat County voting machines. During that time I have found that the machines work flawlessly.

Also, the procedures used by the Moffat County Clerk and Recorder's office, along with; election judges, Resolution Board, and Canvas Board, insure that your vote is counted correctly. There is no room for error, the process has too many checks and balances.

Even when board members have made mistakes intentionally in an effort to trick the machines, or staff, the error has been found and corrected in short order. There is no way to pre-load votes or rig machines.

My involvment has only reinforced my confidence in the election process.